Sino Soviet Summit

Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin's plan to go to Moscow in May for a summit with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev tops the agenda of a five-day visit, starting today, of Vladimir A. Ivashko, deputy general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. Jiang's trip would be a return visit for Gorbachev's historic 1989 trip to Beijing, which formally ended three decades of enmity between the two nations. Also to be discussed: The Persian Gulf War.

Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin's plan to go to Moscow in May for a summit with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev tops the agenda of a five-day visit, starting today, of Vladimir A. Ivashko, deputy general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party. Jiang's trip would be a return visit for Gorbachev's historic 1989 trip to Beijing, which formally ended three decades of enmity between the two nations. Also to be discussed: The Persian Gulf War.

The first Sino-Soviet summit in 30 years could come as early as April, the Soviet Embassy said today, after the Chinese government officially invited Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev to China. The Beijing government said Foreign Minister Qian Qichen proposed the visit in talks with his visiting Soviet counterpart, Eduard A. Shevardnadze, who "accepted the invitation and expressed his gratitude."

When Premier Li Peng arrives in Moscow next week, he will represent a government that in its internal documents is scathingly critical of Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev for backsliding from the Communist faith. But Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Li Jinhua was all sweetness Thursday when asked whether Gorbachev's reforms are undermining socialism--and whether Li would discuss this with him.

Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen said here Saturday that preparations will begin shortly for the first Sino-Soviet summit in 30 years, although the two countries still have differences over Cambodia and other crucial issues. Qian said that his visit, the first by a Chinese foreign minister to Moscow since 1957, would "initiate the process of normalization between the two countries" after years of rivalry, hostility and even armed clashes along their border.

Thirty years of intense rivalry between the world's two great Communist powers, China and the Soviet Union, will come to an end when Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev meets with Deng Xiaoping and China's other top leaders here this week for a historic summit whose impact will be felt worldwide. Gorbachev, who arrives here Monday for the first Sino-Soviet summit meeting since 1959, is coming to open a new relationship between China and the Soviet Union--one that ends the hostility that nearly led to war between the two countries in the late 1960s but also one that does not re-create the old Communist alliance that so frightened the West in the 1950s.

China said today that there will be no summit with the Soviet Union while Vietnamese troops remain in Cambodia despite the publication here of an interview in which Mikhail S. Gorbachev called for such a meeting. The Soviet leader, in an interview with the Chinese weekly magazine Outlook, called for the first Sino-Soviet summit since 1969 when Prime Minister Alexei N. Kosygin met with Chinese Premier Chou En-lai.

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev will visit China May 15-18 for the first Sino-Soviet summit meeting in 30 years, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced Sunday. At the same time, the two countries issued a joint communique on the Cambodian conflict, listing many points of agreement but differing on how to achieve reconciliation among the warring factions.

Friday was the day of history, the day of revolution, the day of troops refusing to march on the people, the day of the news blackout. And it was the day CNN beat the tar out of the other networks. CNN did that by doing what it always does when there is a breaking story. It stayed on the air. No big deal? Very big deal. In its 50 years of existence, this was American television's first revolution. Or at least near revolution. It was extraordinary television, a live chronicle of the movement toward radical change in the People's Republic of China against an ominous background of possible military action against masses of protesters demanding democratic reforms.

"The events have not run their course--far from it." --Mikhail S. Gorbachev, at the end of his first day in China The impending arrival of Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev for the first Sino-Soviet summit meeting in 30 years added a new element to the demonstrations in Beijing. Gorbachev represented youth, openness, flexibility, political change--things the Chinese students yearned for, things their own leaders seemed to them incapable of delivering. Gorbachev's visit also meant new visibility for the protesters.

Sometime before dawn Monday, a Moscow boulevard will blossom in a spectacle that would once have made Soviets' blood run cold. Dozens of Chinese flags will not herald an invading army but greet visiting VIPs as limousines whisk them from their airplane to the Kremlin. Premier Li Peng's visit will be the highest contact in Chinese-Soviet relations since Mikhail S.

"The events have not run their course--far from it." --Mikhail S. Gorbachev, at the end of his first day in China The impending arrival of Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev for the first Sino-Soviet summit meeting in 30 years added a new element to the demonstrations in Beijing. Gorbachev represented youth, openness, flexibility, political change--things the Chinese students yearned for, things their own leaders seemed to them incapable of delivering. Gorbachev's visit also meant new visibility for the protesters.

The fundamental things apply as Tom goes by. These opportunities don't present themselves very often. So it's a little surprising that Tom Brokaw wasn't parachuted into Beijing and videotaped floating earthward, mike in hand, analyzing Sino-American relations. Not that NBC, in dispatching its star anchorman to China last week, was caught with its promos down. Hardly. If you watched the screen, you saw him, walking or standing tall, amid multitudes of Chinese, as a voice declared: "He's met with the Chinese leaders, covered the people's way of life.

When it comes to perks, it's hard to beat two free tickets to every event at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium: Padres, Chargers, Aztecs, World Series, Super Bowl, motorcycle races, The Who concert, you name it. And not stinko tickets, either. In baseball, right next to team owner Joan Kroc's private box. In football, next to team owner Alex Spanos. With free parking, ushers to keep away the riffraff, and beer and hot dogs within easy reach. Such is the good life enjoyed by 26 public officials since the stadium opened in 1967.

Friday was the day of history, the day of revolution, the day of troops refusing to march on the people, the day of the news blackout. And it was the day CNN beat the tar out of the other networks. CNN did that by doing what it always does when there is a breaking story. It stayed on the air. No big deal? Very big deal. In its 50 years of existence, this was American television's first revolution. Or at least near revolution. It was extraordinary television, a live chronicle of the movement toward radical change in the People's Republic of China against an ominous background of possible military action against masses of protesters demanding democratic reforms.

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev arrives in Beijing today for the first Sino-Soviet summit in 30 years, ending the long and bitter conflict between the two great Communist powers and realigning international relations around the world. Gorbachev's four days of talks with Chinese leaders, including Deng Xiaoping, the country's senior leader, are expected to complete the normalization of Sino-Soviet relations, which once were so tense that they brought the two nations to the brink of war, and to lay the basis for increased political and economic cooperation.

The world may be about to witness the sort of fundamental strategic realignment that happens only once or twice in a generation. Without fanfare, relations between the Soviet Union and China have warmed to the point where the world's two great communist powers are ready to undertake their first high-level exchanges in decades.

When it comes to perks, it's hard to beat two free tickets to every event at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium: Padres, Chargers, Aztecs, World Series, Super Bowl, motorcycle races, The Who concert, you name it. And not stinko tickets, either. In baseball, right next to team owner Joan Kroc's private box. In football, next to team owner Alex Spanos. With free parking, ushers to keep away the riffraff, and beer and hot dogs within easy reach. Such is the good life enjoyed by 26 public officials since the stadium opened in 1967.

Thirty years of intense rivalry between the world's two great Communist powers, China and the Soviet Union, will come to an end when Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev meets with Deng Xiaoping and China's other top leaders here this week for a historic summit whose impact will be felt worldwide. Gorbachev, who arrives here Monday for the first Sino-Soviet summit meeting since 1959, is coming to open a new relationship between China and the Soviet Union--one that ends the hostility that nearly led to war between the two countries in the late 1960s but also one that does not re-create the old Communist alliance that so frightened the West in the 1950s.

Last February, what some called the Battle of the Burberrys erupted when trench-coated Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings went to Japan to cover the funeral of Emperor Hirohito and report on the changing social, economic and political conditions there. Next week, though, only CBS' Rather of network anchordom's Big Three will be in China anchoring coverage of the Sino-Soviet summit meeting of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and China's Deng Xiaoping, the first such meeting since 1958.